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England Pace Ace Broad To Face County In Home Championship OpenerWednesday, April 4th, 2018

Worcestershire CCC supporters can look forward to seeing England paceman Stuart Broad in action for Nottinghamshire in the opening home match of the 2018 season.

Broad has been made available to face the County in the Specsavers County Championship match beginning on April 27.

He went past 400 Test wickets during the first Test of the current series with New Zealand.

James Vince, who hit 76 in England’s drawn Test with New Zealand in Christchurch today, has been given the green light to face Worcestershire when they face Hampshire in the opening game of the campaign at the Ageas Bowl from April 13.

Then seven days later the England duo of spinner Jack Leach and paceman Craig Overton are available for the County’s fixture with Somerset at the Cooper Associates County Ground.

Six members of the England Test squad, who will shortly head home from New Zealand, have been made available to get straight back into action for the start of the County Championship season over the next couple of weeks.

All six players will remain available for the three further rounds of Championship matches that are played before the start of the Royal London One-Day Cup on May 17.

Full England player availability for the early stages of the Specsavers County Championship:

Mark Stoneman and Ben Foakes (Surrey) – available for all games from April 20 (but not v Cambridge MCCU April 13-15).

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow (Yorks) – available for Specsavers County Championship matches against Essex (4-7 May) and Surrey (11-14 May). Liam Plunkett, Gary Ballance, and David Willey (Yorks) – available for all matches.

Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) and Mark Wood (Durham) are all unavailable for the start of the season having signed to play in the Indian Premier League.

Players selected for the first Test of the summer against Pakistan which starts at Lord’s on May 24 have been told by the ECB that they are expected to return by May 17, with availability for Royal London One-Day Cup fixtures to be confirmed nearer the time.